Another user's view on Medium.com

Certainly different and a bit humorous.

Nov 25, 2013 - I’m Already Tired of Medium - "I came here to write and think, not to be told what to do."

Though the site’s tagline is attractive and reassuring (“A better place to read and write”), it’s unfortunately misleading — or at least needs an addendum. Medium is a great place to read and write feel-good, self-help marching orders to technologically savvy but apparently clueless, unmotivated under-fortysomethings. The site’s content (led by recommended posts or those picked by editors), is dominated by a singular tone and message: Self Help How To. Life coaching, if you will.

After all, the easiest audience to understand and cater to is the audience who shares your immediate interests and experiences. Unfortunately, it appears that the only topic anyone in this group cares to read or write about is self improvement.

Self Help How To is the easiest, laziest form of popular writing there is. It is largely anecdotal. It requires no research, no facts, no falsifiable claims, no proven results. If you can articulate a feeling or an experience, you can tell somebody else how to deal with it — even if you have never actually done so yourself. And if you dress it up correctly, you can make a huge fortune doing it without any interest at all in the end result of your work.

Self Help How To is boring when it’s the only subject matter that is elevated. I suppose that may be my chief complaint: I didn’t come to Medium just to be life-coached.

#medium - #blogging - #writing - #howto - #blog_jr